I keep getting into arguments with friends about China being a military threat to the U.S. Look at the crazy targets in the Gobi desert designed to test city-destroyers, they say. And what about the massive secret underground additions to their nuclear program? What about their testing satellite-killing lasers?

No, China is not preparing to invade Murka. Why would they? They've never been expansionist beyond what they truly consider to be their own borders (Tibetans and Uyghurs would argue this, of course). The truth is far creepier. China is preparing for if/when the West collapses, if/when climate changes causes global famine, and for the possibility that Islam really does coalesce into a global Jihad. They're not arming themselves for invasion, they're doing so to keep the rest of the world OUT when it all goes to shit.